Survey of Fluorine Industry in China

CCM has published a
market research report covering the fluorine industry in China, with focus on
the market trends of fluorite, anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (AHF), HFC-152a, and
HCHC-142b. The report gives industry players in China’s fluorine industry a
guideline of the current market development and also points out the future
trend. This information is inevitable for a sustainable decision making in
China’s market to be ahead of competitors.

The
Chinese fluorine industry, in fact, has been one of the fastest developing and
at the same time most promising chemical industries in the country. As a fact,
China has become one of the largest fluorine production and consumption areas
worldwide. The industry can roughly be divided into four different segments,
containing inorganic fluoride, fluor-refrigerant, fluor polymer and
fluor-intermediate.

According
to CCM’s research, China’s high fluorine production is supported by the highest
proven fluorite reserves on the globe. In 2016, it had recoverable fluorite
reserves of about 40 million tonnes. China remains the largest fluorite
producer with 4.2 million tonnes of output in 2016, accounting for more than
65% of global total. Most of China's fluorite deposits are associated fluorite
deposits, and the monomineral-fluorite deposits are relatively scarce. It
is obvious that the available resources are limited.

The
Chinese government has paid much attention to environmental protection since
the second half of 2016. In terms of the production safety risk and
environmental pollution problems in the fluorine industry, China conducted a
frequent regulatory investigation. The fluorite mining industry was impacted
the most. Many small and medium-size fluorite enterprises were shut down. The
overall operating rate of the fluorite industry enjoyed restrictions and
progress of the industry consolidation have been accelerated.

Fluorine
chemical products with the characteristics of chemical resistance, a good
resistance of high-low temperature, ageing resistance, low friction,
and excellent insulation, are widely applied in many fields.

China's
fluorine chemical can date back to the 1950s. With abundant fluorite reserves,
China has formed a large-scale industry structure after the development in the
past 60 years. There are four important sectors for China's fluorine chemical
industry, namely inorganic fluoride, refrigerants, Fluor-intermediate, and
Fluor polymer.

In
the 21st century, before the financial crisis, the output value of China's
fluorine chemical maintained an average annual growth of 20% to 30% and the
growth rate is far higher than the global average rate. After the financial
crisis, the average annual growth rate of the output value of China's fluorine
decreased slightly. Overall, China has become one of the largest fluorine
chemical production and consumption regions.

According
to CCM’s analysis, the costs and requirements to enter the industries of
fluorite and hydrofluoric acid in China will change significantly in the
future, and the industry concentration will continue to improve. Furthermore,
the production and exports of these two main fluorine products will change
alongside and more attention are inclined to pay to hydrofluoric
acid's high-value downstream industries.

Looking
at the Fluorhydrochemicals HFCs and HCFCs, the industry structure in China will
be restructured according to the environmental obligations by the Montreal
Protocol and especially the Kigali Amendment. As a result, domestic
manufacturers need to accelerate their existing capacity optimization and
increase their investment in new environmental friendly alternatives, such as
HFOs, which will become a key point in the later development.

It
is foreseeable that other refrigerants will continuously erode the market share
of HFCs and HCFCs in the coming years.

CCM
is China’s leading market intelligence provider for the fields of agriculture,
chemicals, food and feed. Get in contact with our team by send an email
to econtact@cnchemicals.com or
call directly on 86-20-37616606